Final book in Ten Commandmentseries series

It was on a summer's day, back in August 2004, that I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me about writing a book series. It wasn't an audible voice but at the same time, it was loud and clear.

We were living in Southern California at the time, on a beautiful ranch where my husband worked as a racecar technician. Just a few years earlier we had come to faith in Jesus Christ. An event that radically changed our lives. The fact that it was possible to hear God's voice had never occurred to me.

I am forever thankful that He spoke exactly the way He did because I never doubted what I had heard. I was still a rather young believer back then and, although I enjoyed writing since I was a little girl, I had no plans of writing such books.

And here we are, nineteen years down the road. I finally finished the tenth and final book in the series about the Ten Commandments in the 21st century. To be honest, I have longed for this day. Why? Because I have so many other ideas for writing books. Ideas that I didn't want to work on as long I had not finished this series. Yeah, that's called discipline 😁 

No other gods is the tenth and final book in this eye-opening series and it deals with the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before Him. Each chapter starts with a travel story, travels we made throughout the years all over the world. Travels that introduced us to other religions than the one we grew up with, to other cultures, and to other gods...

The subtitle says: Why undivided loyalty to the One and only living God matters in these days

Curious? The book is available on Amazon in your country.

Has your faith been tested?

Has your faith ever been tested to see if it was genuine?

Maybe you find this a peculiar question. Of course, we have faith. Faith in God and in His Word and yes, we must show our faith by our actions (See James 2:17).

Trials and difficulties

But still, faith that hasn't been tested, is no faith at all. Now, the Bible says our faith will be tested by trials and difficulties and/or we can test ourselves to find out if our faith is genuine.

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 we read: Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.

Interesting, isn't it? How do we test ourselves to see whether we stand in faith? If all goes well in life, there is no opportunity to test our faith. It is when things go wrong, we get the chance! We get the chance to see if what we believe will stand the test of time, even if we don't see it manifest in our lives at the moment.

Not a bad investment

In 1 Peter 1:6-7 we read: So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

👉Tested faith will bring us much praise, glory, and honor in the future. So, the testing is never a bad investment.

Endurance will grow

And finally, when our faith is being tested, our endurance has a chance to grow. In James 1:2-4 we can read the following: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

So, whether we test ourselves or we are being tested, it is the perfect opportunity to grow in our faith! Has your faith been tested? I would love to hear your story and who knows it might encourage someone else.

Living by the Book in 2022

Before I was a believer, I thought that living according to biblical principles and values would be hard, that most fun things would be forbidden, and that life would be predictable and boring....

Oh, how wrong my thinking was! The opposite is true. Of course I had to renew my thinking on thousands of topics, followed by corresponding words and actions.

This new life turned out to be a completely different adventure than the ones I had lived until then, and I had lived many adventures, believe me.

The Christian life has many ups and downs and the Bible even warns us to expect trials and tribulations!  Which, by the way, will strengthen our faith and build endurance. But in a certain way 'living by the Book' has made my life easier.

Yeah, really. How? Well, there is no need for me to join every new hype and fad the world can come up with. Sticking with the Word of God means that opinions I have about creation, the climate, mankind, marriage, family life, work ethics, and so on, and so on, are based on that very same Word. They are not mine, they are His and that makes them eternal and thus extremely valuable.

👉What has living by the Book brought or taught you?

The good armor (1)

That we are engaged in a spiritual battle on a global scale is quite clear. Rulers, authorities, and powers of darkness are fighting for dominion. We sure can feel that on a personal level as well.

How are we supposed to fight against all the disturbing and contradictory messages, news items, and opinions we are bombarded with each day? How do we stand firm and keep on standing? As a Christian, how do we stay positive and hopeful within our realm of influence?

We all struggle with this, to some degree. I have decided to write a series of short blogs about the spiritual armor as described in the Bible. Yes, we are called to be peacemakers, but that does not mean we can neglect to arm ourselves for this spiritual battle.

No one wants a battle, no one wants opposition, no one wants war. But hiding our heads in the sand is not the right answer. 👉 The Bible prepares us so we can stand firm in a time like this. Ephesians 6 is all about that. You may have read that chapter a hundred times, maybe never. Either way, I hope you will receive encouragement, insight, and revelation from the upcoming blog posts. The basic text for this series is Ephesians 6:10-13, I broke it down into pieces:

• Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
• Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
• For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
• Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.
• Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

I hope you will join me in this series. Feel free to share the posts!

Encouragement for writers

In my blog post of April 13, I wrote that 2020 would become the most creative and productive year I have had so far. Simply because I refuse to be a victim of the thief's schemes who wants nothing more than to paralyze us as we passively watch the world go crazy.

I know, what the Lord has called me to be, and that is to be His faithful mouthpiece, regardless of the circumstances, I should add. This morning I read Psalm 57: 2 in my NLT, it says: I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.

Such verses excite me ... He will fulfill His purpose for me. No doubt about it. He will do it. Phew, relax.

Anyway, 2020 so far. On May 1st my new English book True Worshipers was released. In the same month, a Russian edition of my book In My Name was released and soon an Italian edition of the same book will also be released, which will be distributed in Italy through CLC.

Last week, I was notified that In My Name also ended up as a finalist in the 2020 International Book Awards, hosted by American Book Fest. Category Religion: Christian - inspirational. Whether that makes any difference in book sales or publicity doesn't really matter to me. I take it as a nice boost and encouragement... my work will not be unnoticed!

I have been working on a theme frame for a new book but currently, we are busy with a house renovation which takes up time and energy... mind you, we are camping out in the yard 😀

Anyway, I have hope and expectation when it comes to my writing journey, certainly because of encouraging words such as found in Psalm 57!

What about your writing, work in progress, ideas, or plans?

The thief and the Giver

When my brothers and I were little children, my parents purchased a record-player. Well, not exactly like the one in this picture, but it was in the early sixties. On our knees before the speaker, we listened to the same Bible stories over and over.

👉There was always someone in trouble, there was always an enemy, and there was always a way out!

I still love the Bible stories. And in a way, I have kept the childlike faith... With God all things are possible! Over the past several weeks I have been doing a lot of thinking, meditating on the Word, and asking God about the current happenings in our world.

He reminded me of the words of Jesus as recorded in John 10:10. The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness.

I love that verse! It clearly speaks about the trouble, the enemy we have. The Bible calls him a thief, the devil, or satan. But it also clearly speaks about the way out, Jesus Himself. I know there are plenty of theories, ideas, and explanations about what is happening in the world right now. Some are downright nonsense, some are quite interesting. From a biblical point of view, however, I truly believe things are quite simple.

The thief is at work. He steals people's joy and peace, he kills people, and he destroys our societies and economies. We see it happen all around us. No point in blaming God, the Chinese, or the president of your country. The thief is at work on a global scale. Let it be no surprise, Jesus announced it. But Jesus did not stop His speech there, for He is also at work!

We just celebrated Easter. He came to give us life. Not just an ordinary life, but a life in all its fullness. That life is available for anyone who believes in Him and that life does not change because of what the enemy is doing.

I can only speak for myself of course; but I have decided that 2020 will not be the year to be remembered as the year of corona, the year of cancelations, loss, lack, fear, worry, doubt, or whatever. NO! It will be the most creative and productive year I have had so far. I refuse to be a victim of the thief's schemes. I am victorious in Christ. With God's help, I can scale a wall!

Faith, hope and love...

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, I had such a faith-love-hope necklace that I wore without realizing what it really meant. Maybe someone gave it to me, to be honest, I don't remember... Faith, hope and love... the conclusion of the 13th chapter in the first letter to the Corinthians.

These three elements keep coming back throughout the Bible and not too long ago my eye fell on a scripture that clearly mentions all three. Paul wrote a letter to the believers in Thessaloniki and in his introduction he says: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3). Beautiful, isn't it?

Paul has a tendency to write really long sentences, and sometimes that causes us to miss the point he wants to make. It often helps me to separate his sentences in small portions, a kind of schematic version of what he wants to say. I noticed when I read like that, the words stick with me. Yeah, I personally find it easier to learn with bullets, numbers and a,b,c's :) His introduction teaches me the following (and I hope you will see it too):

1. My faith must produce work. Saying that I believe in God, means nothing if I have no fruit to prove it. The devil believes in God too. Faith produces works. James 1:22 says: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
2. My love must result in labor. In other words, the godly love that the Holy Spirit produces in my life should prompt me to act. This is not the cheap 'love' version the world promotes, wherein we LOVE pizza, the weather, the girl next door and the Lord... all in one word. No, this is supernatural love, the kind that prompts us to love our enemies and to be kind to the ones that are unlovable.
3. My hope inspires endurance. The hope I have in Jesus Christ inspires me to go on where others stop. It inspires me not to give up and not to whine when things don't go my way. My endurance tells others something about the God I love.

Faith, hope and love... a marvelous theme to think about and act upon this week. Does this help you?